A financial planner gives his best advice to grow your wealth

According to certified financial planner Joe O'Boyle,
from Voya
Financial Planning, the best way to grow your wealth isn't to
earn more money, or invest, or save a set percentage of your
salary each month.

It's to have a plan.

"Create a formal, written, financial plan that includes a list of
your financial goals and put together an automatic savings
program specific to achieving each objective," O'Boyle
told Business Insider. "After all, 'a goal without a plan is
just a wish.'"

He recalled a young married couple who came by his office for
their first meeting with a financial planner. "They had been
working on curbing their spending habits and had just paid off
all of their credit card debt over the course of the previous
year," he said. "They were excited to be debt-free and were
looking to get started building and growing their wealth."

O'Boyle helped them determine their financial goals and rank them
in order of importance. Here were their top five:

1. Having an emergency reserve fund with six months of expenses
set aside.

2. Putting money away for their retirement.

3. Saving up for a down payment on a home.

4. Saving for their daughter's college education.

5. Having some money set aside to help care for aging parents.

After reviewing the couple's monthly cash flow, they decided the
couple could save 20% of their net take home pay to put towards
achieving their goals. They set up an automatic savings program,
so the day after their paychecks were deposited into their
checking accounts twice a month, 20% of their pay went from their
checking account into investment accounts specific to achieving
each of their goals.

"By setting up an automatic electronic deposit program, this
simplified their saving and budget process," O'Boyle said. "'This
is so easy, we don't even notice that the money is being saved.
Why didn't we start doing this years ago?'"

"By living within their means and following a formal written plan
based on their goals, they began saving and investing
consistently. Their money could now grow and compound towards
achieving their financial objectives."